He was the daring crowd-surfing pensioner who almost stole the show at The Killers' huge Manchester gig on Saturday night - and 'Billy' has now been hailed by fans as "The Man". Frontman Brandon Flowers halted the show at the Emirates Old Trafford cricket ground to leap off the stage and check that 'Billy' was OK when he got dropped to the ground.
Now, the MEN can reveal that silver-haired 'Billy' is actually Doug James, 67, from Sale. His son Barry has confirmed that he's doing OK despite a bit of a bash to the head after his adventurous crowd surf on Saturday night.
But his rock 'n' roll stunt has been praised by thousands who attended the gig on Saturday night. And The Killers themselves have now tweeted his picture with the caption: "There's no age limit for rock 'n' roll".
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Many commenting on the MEN Facebook page have now hailed him "The Man" - a fitting title given The Killers' famous tune of the same name. Sarah Steen added: "Billy is living his best life, we should all be more like Billy."
Videos of the moment have been circulating on social media, where 'Billy' aka Dougie is first seen leaping into the crowd, just as the band launched into their cover version of Joy Division's Shadowplay. But as he surfed towards the stage, he appeared to slip to the floor which Brandon spotted from the stage.
Brandon said: "Who dropped the guy, who dropped him? Is he OK? Let's just take care of him, his head is bleeding a little bit." Brandon leaped down off the stage to meet him, gave him and hug and was seen asking him repeatedly "are you sure you're OK?"
As the crowd started to chant "Billy, Billy, Billy," Brandon made his way back up to the stage.
Brandon told the crowds what had happened saying: "Billy was trying to crowd surf, he looks like he was 68 years old. I said 'Billy what are you doing?"
Revealing the brilliant comment that Billy had made in response, Brandon revealed in his best northern accent: "And you know what he said? He said: "I'm enjoying meself". To huge laughter and applause from the crowd.
As Brandon and the band kicked back into Shadowplay, Brandon shouted: "Let's enjoy ourselves in honour of Billy."
School teacher Nathalie Whyte, 45, from the High Peak, captured the moment he crowd-surfed across the crowds on Saturday night. She was with her teacher friend Lissa and had just met Doug before he stunned everybody around them by launching into the crowd surf.
Nathalie said: "It was the funniest thing ever! We met them as we were walking through the crowd and he introduced the crowd to his son and daughter in law. The next minute he was swimming front crawl held aloft our heads."
Killers fan Karen Cunningham also took photos and video as 'Billy' made his way to the front. She said: "What an amazing old man enjoying life."
Doug's son Barry took to social media on Sunday after the huge response to his dad's story of crowd-surfing heroics spread on social media under the Billy hashtag. He tweeted a photo of his dad resting up at home and said: "Just been round to see him and #Billy is good and well, loving all the attention and is "just enjoying miself".
Fans of the band absolutely loved the moment, billing it one of the highlights of The Killers gig which played out to 60,000 fans on Saturday night. Praising Billy on our Facebook page, Marie Cowdall said: "Billy is my new life guru, live for the moment! Was ace to see him back in the crowd loving the night again."
Elspeth Meller said: "What a legend Billy!!!! And what an absolute star Brandon was. Epic night."
While Anthony Van Der Steen said: "Absolutely legendary to witness the cameras kept finding him in the crowd after that just loving life. When life gives you lemons be Bill." And Lisa Higham summed up the mood saying: "Billy's the Man".
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